The Next Question You Beg May Be Your Last

So last week we had what qualifies as a disaster here at the Book Bench. A post used the phrase "beg the question" to mean "raise the question." Our readers informed us of the mistake, and we corrected it, and while correcting it realized that we didn't know what "begging the question" means. The angry Web site BegTheQuestion.info (motto: "Get it Right") defines it as "a logical fallacy in which an argument is assumed to be true without evidence other than the argument itself." They sell this definition on T-shirts, mugs, and thongs (get it right):

O.K., I thought, I got it. Right. Except I really didn't: the site told me the phrase came from the Latin petitio principii, which translates more strictly to "laying claim to the principle." Hmmm. If this is true, do we still need a phrase that means this? And what, exactly, does this mean? And how did it get misappropriated in the first place?

Professor Liberman kindly answered my request with a four-part response that is nothing short of revelatory. It is also, however, nothing short of two thousand words, some of which are Greek. We, alas, are not Greek-enabled at the Bench, and so I am directing you to The Language Log, where you can (and must, if you want to get it right) read the post in its entirety. I leave you with an excerpt—Professor Liberman's conclusion:

What should we do? Should we join the herd and use "beg the question" to mean "raise the question"? Or should we join the few, proud hold-outs who still use it in the old "assume the conclusion" sense, while complaining about the ignorant rabble who etc.?

In my opinion, those are both bad choices. If you use the phrase to mean "raise the question," some pedants will silently dismiss you a dunce, while others will complain loudly, thus distracting everyone else from whatever you wanted to say. If you complain about others' "misuse," you come across as an annoying pedant. And if you use the phrase to mean "assume the conclusion," almost no one will understand you.

So I recommend that you never use the phrase yourself, and that you cultivate an attitude of serene detachment in the face of its use by others.